Genevieve was a 5th century French peasant girl turned nun, whose piety was believed to have been responsible for saving Paris from the Attila the Hun. After her death and canonization, Genevieve’s shrine and relics were carried through the streets of Paris at times of crisis. Such a procession was popularly believed to have ended a deadly 12th century epidemic, adding to her prestige and adoration and making her shrine a popular destination for pilgrims.
But during the violence of the French Revolution toward all things associated with the Church, St. Genevieve was not spared. On October 22, 1793, the revolutionaries melted down her famous and venerated shrine, her bones were burned, and her ashes were thrown into the Seine. St-Étienne-du-Mont, the church where her shrine and relics had been kept, was transformed into a “shrine of reason” renamed the “Temple of Filial Piety.”
Fortunately, however, not all physical evidence of St. Genevieve’s resting place is gone. St-Étienne-du-Mont was reconsecrated in 1801 and within it, over the slab that her tomb once sat upon (her tombstone), there is now a beautiful ornate (albeit empty) tomb of St. Genevieve.
Today is the Feast Day of St. Genevieve, patron saint of Paris. She died on January 3, 512, one thousand five hundred eleven years ago today.
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